Paint the Stars
by December Camie
Summary: Mika's face goes blank, dull, lifeless- Kristi disappears in a cloud of gold dust- Mika's hold on Yuu's hand loosens and his arm drops to the floor with a dull thud. Rei throws her head back in a howl of agony and Yuu screams- ((Owari no Seraph with daemons))


Mika is looking at him from across a tiled platinum floor, smile small and gentle. His eyes are the deep blue of a sky Yuu will never see again. The light reflecting off his hair shines like a blonde halo.

"Mika," Yuu says and his heart aches for some reason he can't remember.

Mika opens his mouth and bright red blood bubbles out.

Yuu gasps, heart lurching in horror, and sprints forward. A dark shape shoots past Yuu; Rei darts under Mika and stops his fall before he hits the ground. Yuu simultaneously spots Krisi dropping from the air above them and manages to catch her in his arms.

He collapses next to Rei and Mika on the floor with a shuddering sob. Mika's breathing is labored and his blood is spilling over his sides into Rei's dark fur. There's a gaping hole in Mika's chest, one arm missing completely. Kristi's wings twitch but otherwise she barely moves from the crook of Yuu's elbow.

"M-Mika," Yuu sniffs, trying to hold back tears. He reaches out to brush bangs out of his friend's face and Rei gives out a low whine from underneath Mika's back.

"It's alright, Yuu." Mika coughs up another clot of blood; white feathers fall away from Kristi's body like snowflakes from a winter sky.

"No its not, you moron! You're- you're bleeding-"

"It's okay," Mika repeats and catches Yuu's hand in his own. His eyes are serious and sincere pools of azure. "Just remember, whatever happens, we're family."

Then Mika's face goes blank, dull, lifeless- Kristi disappears in a cloud of gold dust- Mika's hold on Yuu's hand loosens and his arm drops to the floor with a dull thud.

Rei throws her head back in a howl of agony and Yuu _screams_ -

"MIKA!"

Yuu lurches forward out of bed with a gasp. Its pitch black in his room, a stark contrast from the white and scarlet in his nightmare. He can barely see but he would honestly prefer that over anything else right now.

He brings his legs to his chest and presses his forehead to his knees. He can feel his body trembling. There's a huge lump in his throat but he grits his teeth, willing himself to forget what he just saw.

It's been over a week since Mika and the rest of his family died. Their loss cuts him and Rei like a knife, and he can barely focus on anything else. Everything he does reminds him of them and the fact that they all died so he could escape the vampire's city. How was could he live with himself after that?

His bed dips as Rei shuffles closer. "Yuu?" she whispers.

He doesn't answer. He's afraid if he opens his mouth he will end up crying instead.

"It was only a dream." She presses up against his side and rubs her head against him. "Just a dream."

He silently reaches for her; she moves to a sitting position so he can wrap his arms around her neck. She's warm and her fur is soft and smooth under his fingers. _No blood_ , he tells himself.

"I dreamt-" he begins.

"I know," she says softly.

"Mika and Kristi, Akane, everyone's _dead_ -"

"Their death won't be in vain. We swore we would avenge them, and we will."

"But it was all our fault-"

Rei growls low in her chest but there is a knock on her door before she can say anything else. The door creaks open a moment later.

The sound of boots crossing the doorframe and the click of claws against wood announces the arrival of their visitors.

"Hey, kid. I heard screaming. Did you have another nightmare or something?"

Yuu doesn't move. Guren and his daemon, Cerys, might have found Yuu and Rei after they escaped vampire hell, but that doesn't mean they owe them any personal favors. Besides, Guren was a total ass when he wanted to be, which really meant he was like that _all the freakin' time_.

"Do you miss your mommy?" Guren teases.

Like right now, for instance.

Rei snarls, mouth lifting up to reveal rows of sharp teeth. Way more teeth than an average dog. Yuu clenches his hands into fists around his daemon's fur. "Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about."

"Everyone's lost someone. Get over it. You're useless wallowing in self-pity like this."

Yuu sees crimson. He slams his hand down onto the bed and twists his body to lurch himself at Guren, consequences to be damned. Rei leaps around Yuu and charges at Guren with claws unleashed and jaws open wide- _anything_ to maim the person who dared to insult the crippling loss of their family's death.

Cerys steps swiftly in front of Guren.

Cerys is a black asiatic bear much larger than Rei's slim, dog-like form and with more victories to her name than Yuu will probably ever have. She easily swats Rei to the ground- Yuu feels skin breaking and inhales sharply at the feel of blood trailing down his cheek- and is on top of Rei, holding her down with one paw, in less than a second. Yuu crumples to the ground as he feels the weight of Cerys through Rei. He can't move, he can barely even breathe.

" _You bastard_ ," he rasps. Spheres of blood fall from his chin and land on the wood floor.

"Learn to respect your elders, brat," Guren says.

"Let us go!" Rei barks. She writhes underneath Cerys' heavy grip.

Guren nods and Cerys immediately steps off of Rei. Yuu gasps for air as Rei scrambles to her feet, hackles raised.

Guren's silhouette is dark against the light from the hallway. He's tall and imposing and cocky enough to make Yuu want to punch the smirk off his stupid face. How a guy like that became part of the Moon Demon Company was a mystery to them.

"What the hell do you want from us?!" Yuu snaps. He wasn't in the mood to talk to Guren before and he really wasn't now after being tossed to the floor like some ragdoll.

Guren studies them, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Your daemon hasn't changed since I met you. Has she settled?"

Yuu stiffens and Rei freezes besides him. Their minds go back to that horrific night over a week ago-

Mika was bleeding out onto the tiles with tears in his eyes. In their desperation to get away, _to escape_ , Rei had morphed into an animal large enough to move Mika; a lean, black wolf-looking mammal with a powerful jaw and legs to match. She clenched Mika's hood in her teeth and struggled to drag him back towards the exit.

Yuu remembers running to where Kristi lay a few feet away, still in the form of a snowy owl, and picking her up in his bare hands. He hadn't been thinking about the taboo, but even then he shivered touching the silky smooth of Kristi's wings. He was holding Mika's soul- his very _essence_ \- with his bare hands and he cradled Kristi like she was made of precious glass.

He sprinted back to Rei and Mika just in time to see Mika push Rei away.

Mika only touched Rei for a moment, but Yuu felt it to his core. Electricity rushed through his veins and he was suddenly hyperaware of everything in the room. The lights were brighter, the smell of blood was fresh in his nose and Kristi was warm and real in his hands.

Yuu's posture sagged and he almost tripped over his own two legs from the overload of his own emotions. Love and warmth for Mika and Kristi filled Yuu to the brim. He felt Rei's awe and shock through their connected minds, and knew she was feeling the same as he was.

But then the rush was gone and Yuu was empty again. Yuu shook his head to come back to his senses- he could focus on what just happened later- and pushes his legs to move faster.

"Mika-" he gasped when he reached his friend. "We have to go, now-!"

Mika grabs a fistful of Yuu's shirt and yanks him to his eye level. "Yuu, you and Rei have to go alone. Leave me and Kristi; there's no way we can all make it out of here."

Horror made Yuu gape and Rei snaped, "Don't be stupid! We won't abandon you!"

"You don't have a choice," Kristi said in a low voice. "You two can't carry us, even in the shape you're in now, Rei. You have to go without us."

Tears began to roll down Yuu's face then and he had to shake his head because he couldn't speak. No. No, he couldn't leave Mika, the first person in his life who had actually cared about him and Rei-

"Go," Mika stressed. "Go and live for us, your family. You at least must survive."

In parting, Mika had reached for Rei and ran a hand down the length of her body. The look of tenderness on his face had almost broken Yuu, who was shakily petting Kristi's feathers back into place. The joyous rush from their touch was lost in the sorrow of their parting.

Rei had not changed her form since then. It was almost like Mika's touch had imprinted the shape into Rei's being.

Instead of Yuu, Rei answers Guren's question, "I won't change shape again. This is who I am, who _we_ are."

"And what exactly are you?" Cerys asks, her voice a soft rumble.

Rei had dark black fur sparsely scattered with white strands. Her teeth were longer than an average dog's, ears small and more rounded, strong legs and tail. She was too tame to be a wolf, too intimidating to be a dog. So what exactly was she?

"She's a wolfdog," Yuu says. Rei raises her head and her chest swells in pride.

Guren nods. "I suspected as much. Interesting eye color; blue is very rare for that kind of animal."

Yuu doesn't answer this time, and neither does Rei.

Guren sighs and places his hands on his hips. "Listen, kid. You can't sit around doing nothing all day. I understand you've gone through tragedy, but so has everyone else here. There's not much else you can do but pick yourself up and keep moving forward. Even if you can't see it right now, there's a future beyond what you're going through. Tomorrow I'm putting you two through training and you can start learning how to kill those vampires."

Yuu perks up at that. "You mean it? Seriously?!"

"Yeah. Don't get too excited; this only means I get to make fun of you every time you fail in your own stupidly pathetic way."

Yuu is too excited to get riled up over Guren's insult. He grins at Rei and she mimics him, tongue hanging out of her mouth. Finally, finally, they can learn something useful. This was exactly what they needed to distract themselves.

"Until then, get some sleep. Cerys and I can't train a pair of deranged zombies."

Guren turns on his heel and strides out of Yuu and Rei's bedroom, Cerys padding after him. Yuu and Rei are left alone in the dark once again.

As they climb back into bed, Yuu flips onto his side to face his daemon. He scratches a spot under her ear and smiles when she gives a pleased whine.

"Why did you choose to be a wolfdog?" he whispers into the air between them.

"I don't know. It just feelt right. It's very hard to explain it to you. I don't think you could ever understand it fully"

Yuu huffs. "Are you saying I'm stupid?"

"No," Rei says gently. "I'm saying you're human. That's nothing to be ashamed of, Yuu."

His grips tightens on her fur. "I know. What I meant to ask was, why did you choose now to stop changing? Why not years ago when the vampires took control?"

She nudges his forehead with her soft nose. "You know the answer to that."

He did; the trauma of losing their family had a more profound effect on them the supposed end of humanity. Mika had seen and touched Rei as a wolfdog before he died, and in some way, Rei was preserving his memory by keeping that form.

Not that Yuu was complaining. He thought the shape fit her perfectly and didn't want her to change even if she could.

"Your eyes," he murmured.

Rei stared at him in the blackness. Her gaze was bright blue: the color of the sky, pools of azure, the same shade as Mikaela Hyakuya's.

"I will carry them with us wherever we go," she says. "Kristi's white is scattered in my fur and Mika's eyes are reflected in my own. We will never forget them."

"No," Yuu agrees, closing his own eyes to finally sleep. "Never."

-0o0-

 **I love Owari no Seraph and Daemon AUs is my weakness. So, really, this was unavoidable.**

 **I do not own Owari no Seraph. This work was unedited, so sorry if there's any mistakes. Thanks for reading!**

 **Daemon reference**

 **Yuu: Rei (Japanese)- "nothing, zero". Wolfdog, black fur with white scattered throughout. Bright blue eyes.**

 **Mika: Kristine, aka Kristi (Latin)- "follower of Christ". Snowy Owl.**

 **Guren: Cerys (Welsh)- variant of Carys, "love". Asiatic black bear, black fur, white muzzle and arrow on her collarbone.**


End file.
